


A Family Can Be - A DND Story

by fizzysugarwrites



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Gen, Have fun yall, I got antsy and wanted to put this thing out into the world, Original Story - Freeform, Original setting, Other, There'll be an author's note at the top of each chapter explaining who's who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 10:38:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17958908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fizzysugarwrites/pseuds/fizzysugarwrites
Summary: In the war-wrung land of Nobliya, the paths of fate are crossed quite often. This is an open-ended story of sorts that explores the converging paths of 9 powerful heroes, and their valiant attempt to... well, we'll find that out won't we?





	A Family Can Be - A DND Story

**Author's Note:**

> Nobliya is a fantasy world of my creation, and I make notes at the end of every chapter to display certain points of information that would be helpful in understanding this story, such as political climates and whatnot. I also note, at the beginning of each chapter, what perspective we are seeing the story through and give my own snapshot of who they are.  
> For this first chapter (since apparently I can't put chapter notes at the beginning of a new work?)  
> Raika Tannalis: Half-elf Cavalier Fighter, hailing from a country overseas called Astor (shoutout to ron-begley on tumblr, my good bud who made that whole country that I included since I first played Raika in a game he DMed. Love you dude.) She was framed for a crime, the details of which may or may not be revealed later. She's on the run.  
> Arthur Sparkweaver: Dwarf Divination Wizard, hailing from another country overseas called Halruaa. Has an 8ball that talks. More details soon. An actual child.  
> Tiki: Goblin Tempest Cleric, also hailing from Halruaa. The bodyguard of Arthur and the designated dad friend.

You’ve been running for almost three years now, and it never seems like it’ll end. You’ve lost so much - your trust, your arm, your will to keep going. But you’re here now, in this small town of Stagbell. You must be a sight to behold trudging through the streets - a tall dark half-elf with a metallic arm and a glaive strapped across your back, you and your horse both panting from having run as far as you could, out of pure unending fear that everyone, every _ thing _ , is against you.

You bring your horse to a trot as you survey the city, eyes scanning out from under a large hood that you’ve kept up since you got back into civilization. No one seems to give you second looks. As expected, of course, the town is bustling, so you tie your horse off at a local stable and pay the for-the-day fee with no emotion on your face.

You don’t know how you wandered this way, but you find yourself walking into the local tavern, Barrel of Booze. It has a remarkable lack of tables, and it seems to be that strangers sit with other strangers in this place. Seeing no other choice available, you take a seat at a larger table that has two others already at it.

To your left there is a dwarven child, with a flash of red hair and a five o’clock shadow framed by golden artificer’s goggles. He’s dressed like a little professor, and is chatting in the direction of no one in particular, while looking very intent at the magic 8ball - a very well-made one at that, looking like a sort of obsidian orb - and making wild hand gestures as he tells a story. Across from him sits a goblin man, leaning on the table with tired eyes, almost like that of a parent. He has his black hair tied back in an updo, and it isn’t too long before he suddenly turns his gaze upon you. He speaks, his voice gripped in a thick accent. “You are aware that you’re inside, right?”

You start, not expecting such sarcasm. “I… I am.”

“Then are ya gon remove that hood and let yaself be seen,  _ bheana? _ ” He raises an eyebrow.

“...uh, I-”

“If ya got some scars or such, I can guarantee I seen worse before. Go on then.” The goblin gestures to you again.

You shrink your shoulders. This is a stickier situation than you’d rather be in. But the look in his eyes seems to be less of suspicion and more of curiosity. You turn to the dwarf, whose attention has also since shifted to you. He’s holding the 8ball now, with an inquisitive look on his face.

You sigh, and remove the hood slowly, matching the gaze of the goblin. There is no reaction on his face when you fully remove it. Neither on the dwarf. You glance around the room itself before exhaling again. 

“I’m Tiki, lass. What’s your name?”   
“...Raika. Raika Tannalis.”

“Good to meet ya, Raika. This is -”   
“I’m Arthurog! But you can just call me Arthur,” the dwarf child chimes in with a smile. You’re a little taken aback by his boundless enthusiasm, but you give a small smile back. He seems pleased, and looks at his 8ball again. “This is Octavia!”

“Your… toy?” You cock your head. He laughs. “This isn’t a toy, silly! It’s a focus!”   
At this point Tiki chimes in again. “Arthur here is a regular prodigy in the art o’ diviniation. The obsidian sphere there is his arcane focus.” He shrugs. “You don’t look like a magicky type so I don’t blame you for not seein the arcanific uses of it.”

You shrug in response. It’s true that you don’t know a whole lot about magic aside from what you listened to Rikki was being taught way back when. It’s… been a while since you thought about them. The only folks you’ve trusted in a long time. You had to go your separate way when things got hairy. Hopefully no one thinks you really betrayed them or something like that. You would never, at least not without good reason.

“You awake there?” Arthur pokes your arm and you jolt back from your internal monologue. “Eh, yeah?”

“Good!” Back to the boundless enthusiasm.

“What brings you to this little corner o’ Nobliya?”

Just a sigh escapes your lips. Oh boy, this question again. What brings you here? A lot.

“Exploration.” You put your prosthetic arm up on the table in a relaxed gesture, and Arthur just about loses it. “YOU HAVE A TECHNOMANCY ARM?????”

That just about sets off your terror reaction, but you manage to keep it down. “Well- sort of.”

He squeals with delight and starts on a long tangent about a place called Halruaa, and here you notice he has a sort of accent too, which makes him sound like a curious child even more than anticipated. You catch some key words from the word jumble - airship, flying city, and the most interesting, Widowgast Institute. You could have sworn you’d heard that name before, but before you can ask him to stop and correct himself he’s on to the next topic. “So where’s the power source on this thing?” And he grabs your arm and pulls it across the table. Tiki makes an “ahem” noise. “Arthur we talked about this, ya can’t just grab people and get on they case about they prosthetic limbs and th’ like, not everyone knows what the hell ya talking about.” Arthur practically deflates at the scolding, and you feel a pang of guilt about it. “He’s alright to look at it, this thing’s survived a lot so I suppose knowing more about it would be helpful in case it breaks.”

Tiki squints at you, which you’re not gonna lie makes you feel a bit small. Which is ironic, considering he’s like 3 feet tall.

But nevertheless he gives a nod to okay Arthur’s prying and he eagerly resumes his rambles. You don’t catch all of it, mostly about how the energy that powers technomancy is very ancient, and people only recently discovered how it works. The boy talks an awful lot about his homeland, and of the recent applications of technomancy and science in Helimire.

Your mind wanders at the mention of Helimire, back to the friends you hold dear, to the place where you tried to save a man and allow a city to flourish, alongside four others… gods. You really fucking miss them. All of them. They were your only light back then, everything fucking SUCKED back then, and you couldn’t do anything about it, and - 

“Miss Raika?” You glance up from the table. There are tears in your eyes. Tiki and Arthur both gaze at you, concerned.

You open your mouth to say something, but a loud explosion from outside silences your thought. All three of you turn towards the door. “What in the hell…” Tiki mutters, hopping off his chair and making a beeline for the door. Arthur quickly gathers his things and slides off the bench to follow him, and you find yourself doing the same.

What you see before you outside, seems like something out of your own personal nightmare. A building across the way is ablaze, you can hear people screaming. Someone rides past you astride a horse, wearing a bandanna like some kind of bandit. Tiki curses under his breath and makes a beeline for the stables, with Arthur following behind. You find yourself unable to move. Another bandit gallops past you and you stagger back, falling on the ground. Every fiber of your being is in terror. Another explosion ravages the building and you shut your eyes. “Make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop make it-”   
And you’re suddenly pulled to your feet. “Miss Raika! We’ve gotta leave!” The little dwarven prodigy is in front of you again, holding your hands and tugging you towards the stables. You blink for a second, trying to shove down the fear bubbling up in your throat. Before you’re able to protest, Arthur has pulled you across the road to the stables and you can hear Tiki yelling to him. “Arthur, get the hell up here, we’re makin’ a run for it.” He has a cart pulled by two ponies. “Tannalis!” He barks, and you finally break out of the stupor you were in. “Do ya have a steed or somethin’?” You nod, already heading towards your mare, Libby. Another explosion sounds, this one closer to the stables than to your liking, and Tiki grabs Arthur by the back of his shirt and tosses him into the cart before jumping behind the reins and making a steady getaway down the road. You decide in a moment to not worry about the knot and bring your glaive down on the rope before leaping onto Libby and spurring into a full gallop, following behind Tiki and Arthur’s cart. The town is small, and the roads are wide, and you find yourself riding up next to the cart as the three of you try to navigate your way out of Stagbell. Tiki yells across the way. “What the hell is goin on here?”

“How am I supposed to know?” You shout back, before your ears prick to the whooping and hollering of a pair of the bandits now on your tail as you flee, gaining on you. Tiki looks back at this and curses, spurring the ponies to their top speed. One of the bandits takes the speed change to put himself between you and the cart, and slashes across the top of the canvas cover. From within Arthur yelps. In a spark of the moment, you swing your glaive wide across the front of the bandit, knocking him clear off his horse. Through the gash in the canvas, Arthur looks at you in wonder. As the bandit’s horse slows down - no longer with a rider - you keep yourself as close as possible to the cart as two more bandits come up from behind. One of them fires an arrow clear across, which sparks off your armor with a horrible screeching sound. You wince at the sound, and duck low against your horse, trying to keep out of reach of their assault. You’re nearing up on the gates into town, with a couple guards trying to close the portcullis and trap the bandits in town. 

Tiki cups a hand around his mouth and yells, “HOLD THE GATE, WE’RE GETTING OUT!” You’re getting up close, but so are the bandits. You look back through to Arthur, who is now leaning out the back entrance to the cart, holding his focus under his arm. For a moment, the orb shakes and seems to float next to him as he weaves his hands in articulate patterns and recites something under his breath before raising his hands up fast against the enemies.

You watch with awe as the palms of Arthur’s hands light up and a mote of fire flies forth from them, landing in front of the bandits. Their horses rear up at a halt, and yourself and the cart quickly make a getaway and speed out through the gates as the guards yank a lever and shut the portcullis between you and the bandits with a deafening crash.

You ride for the rest of the daylight, which isn’t a very long time but it’s enough to get out of town by. Only then does Tiki drive the cart out next to a tree and tie it up, and you do so with Libby as well. Tiki takes a moment to catch his breath, then addresses you.

“...thank ya,  _ bheana. _ ” He sits up from the cart, tired eyes regarding you with quiet gratitude. “I don’t know who ya are, but if you hadn’t shown up when ya did, I…”

“It’s nothing. Really! I mean, Arthur did most of the work.”   
“But if you hadn’t bulldozed that guy with your bladestick I wouldn’t have been able to get that spell off! You saved me!” Arthur leans out of the cart at the front. His orb thing is floating next to him and you look a wee bit concerned. Then it floats up to you and you’re even more concerned. You hear a voice in your head say “thank you,” and you damn near scream.

“... that was… something we probably ought to explain.” Arthur pursed his lips and Tiki yawns.

“How does tomorrow sound, Tannalis?” You glance over to Tiki, who has started to set up sleeping bags inside the cart. You take a moment, glancing back at the orb which has since floated back to rest in Arthur’s hands. Then you sigh.

“Yeah, tomorrow sounds good.”

Arthur yawns, Tiki yawns, you yawn.

And then the cart yawns.


End file.
